Saturday, October 25, 2008

Santa, won't you bring me a loom?

And guess what? I already know the answer! He WILL!

Ok, so here's the back story -- I called my mother today to talk to her about buttons for her Tweedy Aran Cardigan (which is coming along swimmingly, btw!) - we decided we're going to wait until she can try it on to decide on buttons, and I'll use little loops instead of button holes. She really just wants one or two buttons at the top, so I think that'll look great. And she's very particular about buttons, so if she finds something else she likes 6 months from now, she can easily change it out and not worry about the size being too big or small for the button hole, etc. So anyway, I also wanted to give her a Christmas gift idea in case my favorite uncle asks for ideas for me - somehow he always comes up with amazing stuff, with no help from anyone, so he may not even ask, but in the latest KnitBits Cirilia talked about the fringe on the featured scarf being done with a fringe twister. It sounded interesting so I looked it up on the www and found that it was a weaving tool and something that I think would be way cool to have for the ends of knitted scarves or wraps - so that was the gift idea I wanted her to pass on to my uncle - if anyone can find it, he can. he's cool like that. So in the conversation about weaving tools, I told her that I was thinking of weaving, but that I wasn't asking for a loom because they were expensive - and that this tool was in the $20 range. I told her that the looms I was looking at were like $125 and said that sounded like a great gift for her and my father to get me - and she was SOO excited! I too was excited because it was the first time someone else was that excited for me (gosh, can't you always count on moms for that?) I told her how my friends were all poo pooing the weaving idea - she said "you tell them that yoooour mother thinks her little girl would be a wonderful weaver!" so take that all you weaver haters! Now here's the problem - I jumped online to look at looms again and realized that I was kind of off on the price thing - the Schacht loom I looked at before (the one that Cirilia has, and talked about on another KnitBits a while back, which initially started me thinking of all this) is more like $225 - but there's a Beka ridgid heddle that is about $130. My problem is that I don't know enough about them to understand what the price difference means - is it a quality issue? Will I have to spend $100 on Beka accessories just to start using it, whereas the Schacht comes with everything I need? I've thrown out some questions to some weavers in the area and I'm hoping to up my understanding a bit before going back to my mother. At the very least, I know I'll get one - even if I have to throw in $100 of my own - either way, I'll be weavin' in the new year! yeah!

4 comments:

I have a LeClerc Bergere, which retails for $165, and is very nice to work on. (I found your blog via the Google blog search if you are wondering!) I would definitely begin with a rigid heddle loom; they are great.

I don't know if your parents are ebay-savvy, but you can usually get used ones on ebay for cheaper than retail. Most of them are almost new. Some also show up on ravelry, if you are there as well.